Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Leofwine_draca IMPACT is an almost forgotten film noir with a great set up: a guy's wife is cheating on him and colludes with her lover to have him killed. The location of the murder is a mountain top road, but as is usual with this genre of film-making, nothing goes according to plan. The first half an hour is a highly suspenseful journey into darkness, and the set-piece sequence on the mountain is superbly handled and keeps you guessing throughout as to what's going to happen.Sadly, the quality of the narrative takes a serious nose dive from this point in and never really recovers. Brian Donlevy, who's a bit too over the hill for this role, loses his identity and decides to go into hiding while the police investigate his wife. Sadly, the writers then see fit to shoehorn an unnecessary romance into the storyline, which really drags things down and evaporates all of the momentum so carefully built up early on. Things finish with a court case, but IMPACT never regains the highs of the early set up. Donlevy is okay, but his character is unsympathetic, and the supporting players are merely adequate in their parts.

Cristi_Ciopron This timeless masterpiece is a sweeping epic drama, played by Donlevy (here resembling Gabin or Lancaster) and Ella Raines. The supporting players are exquisite: especially Ch. Coburn as the shrewd Quincy, and Anna May Wong as the witness who went into hiding and is unwilling to testify. Ph. Ahn has a bit part. The movie shows its audiences bourgeois life, small town life, and courtroom drama, even some tasteful Chinatown atmosphere, and everything with a sovereign neutrality and impartiality; and it has enough of everything. The occasional humor is suitable and authentically funny. And the scene of the crash looks awesome. In movies such as this, you can see that the late '40s style was indeed the '30s style come of age. Also, this one has no fistfights, no gun-play, nothing coarse, raw or bizarre.Ch. Coburn's role delights endlessly, and his stylish performance made me eager to see him show up again.As the runaway victim of a murder attempt, then as the mechanic, Donlevy finds that breathtaking style that Gabin mastered. He resembles Gabin, and also Lancaster.Ella Raines has the highest class.The players honored a movie that in its turn honored them. This one has been made in a spirit of magnanimity.

utgard14 Successful businessman Walter Williams (Brian Donlevy) loves his pretty wife Irene (Helen Walker) more than anything. Little does he know she's plotting with her lover to kill him. During the murder attempt, Walter is hit hard on the head but lives. The other guy, however, is killed in a car crash and burned beyond recognition. Believed to have been the man killed in the crash, Walter decides not to come forward. Instead he goes to work as a mechanic in the garage of Marsha Peters (Ella Raines). When Irene is tried for his murder, Walter must decide whether or not to reveal he's still alive.Brian Donlevy is pretty good. He's at his best when his character is angry or edgy. The sappy romantic stuff doesn't fit him well. Helen Walker is a particularly hissable villainess. Lovely Ella Raines is the good girl. There's no meat to the part but she does well with what she's given. Charles Coburn plays the detective out to get to the bottom of things. He's always fun. Arthur Lubin's direction in the first half is great film noir. I loved the scene where the lover tries to kill the husband. The whole thing was brilliantly executed. Then something happens and it's like a separate movie. The second half is much less like noir and more like a standard crime melodrama where a girl has to prove her guy is innocent of murder. If the entire picture had been like the first half, I'd say it was one of film noir's best. But it isn't. It's still an enjoyable movie with some good twists and turns.

Alex da Silva Brian Donlevy (Walter) is duped into taking his wife Helen Walker's (Irene) 'cousin' to another town. They never make it. In the only scene of any kind of impact, a car crash determines the course of this film.The acting in this film is slightly sub-par from everyone except Helen Walker who steals the show in all her scenes. The character of Brian Donlevy hasn't been written very well. We see him as a man totally in control at work who is confident, determined and bullying. For him to be involved in a marriage where he revels in the name "Softy" is a complete nonsense, unless it was a sarcastic nickname. Experience shows that he would either be a controlling monster in his home life as well, or prone to episodes of sexual humiliation where he can relinquish control. A permanent label of "Softy" is just ridiculous. His character is slightly limp and frustrating during this film. He is NOT a softy so why does he act like one? Mechanic Ella Raines has been given absolutely no character whatsoever to explore so she comes across as rather dull. Considering that we spend over half the film in the company of these two, not surprisingly, the film drags. Charles Coburn (Lt Tom Quincy) is usually good value in any film, but he falls short by putting on an Irish accent. He can't do it convincingly and he can't maintain it. Why did he bother? Aside from the characters, we have a very unconvincing love story between Donlevy and Raines. Not only does short, chubby Donlevy not have the looks required for a young woman like Ella, but he is from her dad's generation and would not get a look in. We also get a nice piece of Chinese racism with the characters of maid Anna May Wong (Su Lin) and her uncle Philip Ahn (Ah Sing). His name might as well be "Ah So" and both these characters spout Chinese wisdom at every opportune moment because that's what Chinese people do! The story scores points for an interesting beginning, albeit with an annoying Donlevy leading us through the proceedings, but it then falls flat and I'm afraid we are left with not much of an impact at all. It's watchable but not recommended.